Should American Taxpayers Subsidize Israel’s Defense?

I rarely delve into foreign policy and defense issues. And when I do, such as my post about the conflict in Ukraine, it’s usually because it gives me an opportunity to draw attention to a topic that is in my bailiwick (in the case of Ukraine, it gave me an excuse to write about federalism).

With this caveat in mind, let’s turn our attention to the Middle East. Unless you’re a hermit living in a remote cave, you presumably know that Israel is locked in another fight with Hamas.

I’ve previously explained that I’m very sympathetic to the notion that Israel has a right to defend itself.

But supporting Israel’s right to self defense doesn’t mean I should foot the bill. Yet that’s what’s happening. According to Wikipedia, Washington sends about $3 billion per year to subsidize Israel’s military.

And now that amount will be even larger because Congress just approved another $225 million to help finance Israel’s missle-defense system.

Congress approved a $225 million package to replenish Israel’s missile defenses with its last order of business before a five-week recess… The House’s 395-8 vote in favor late Friday followed Senate adoption of the legislation by voice vote earlier in the day. The money is directed toward restocking Israel’s Iron Dome, which has been credited with shooting down dozens of incoming rockets fired by Palestinian militants over 3½ weeks of war. …Iron Dome has enjoyed strong U.S. technological and financial support. Throughout its history, the U.S. has provided more than $700 million to help Israel cover costs for batteries, interceptors, production costs and maintenance, the Congressional Research Service said. The total already appeared set to climb above $1 billion after Senate appropriators doubled the Obama administration’s request for Iron Dome funding for fiscal 2015. Now it seems likely to rise even further.

But this doesn’t mean everyone is happy about all this spending.

Some libertarian-leaning fiscal conservatives opposed the added subsidies, or at least wanted Congress to come up with offsetting cuts.

Despite almost universal support for Israel in Congress, the Iron Dome money appeared in doubt only a day ago as Senate efforts stalled after an effort by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma to find cuts elsewhere in the budget to pay for the aid.…Voting against the measure in the House were…Republicans Justin Amash of Michigan, Walter Jones of North Carolina, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Mark Sanford of South Carolina.

For what it’s worth, I applaud those four House Republicans.

I’m motivated in part by a desire to limit the burden of government spending in America, but I also think that Israel easily could afford more military outlays if it pared back its overly generous welfare state.

If you look at the IMF data, government spending consumes about 43.8 percent of Israel’s economic output. And according to the CIA Factbook, Israel’s military budget amounts to about 5.7 percent of GDP.

I’m not a math genius, but that certainly suggests to me that Israel’s government is diverting about 38 percent of economic output for non-military spending.

If national defense is important and worthwhile (and it is), then Israel should prioritize and reduce domestic outlays.

Heck, that’s what Roosevelt did during World War II and what Truman did during the Korean War. If you don’t believe me, look at lines 31-34 of this OMB spreadsheet.

By the way, some people accuse these GOPers of being anti-Israel, but I think that charge is grossly unfair. I’m not personally close to any of the Republicans who voted against the Iron Dome funding, but I’ve met and talked to all of them and I’ve followed their careers. Suffice to say that I’ve never heard even the slightest hint that any of them harbor any anti-Israel or anti-Jewish sentiments.

Israel is our closest friend in a very troubled region. Our national defense benefits from Israel’s ability to defend itself and to serve as a check against neighboring authoritarian regimes and extremists. Assisting with training and the development of Israel’s military capacity allows the U.S. to take a less interventionist role in the region. I am hopeful that American troops soon can leave the region and Israel and its neighbors can live in peace without U.S. aid or involvement.

The last sentence is a pretty good description of libertarian foreign policy: Be prepared to defend ourselves, but don’t look for trouble outside our borders.

P.S. The government of Israel pays for people who do nothing but pray. Which means that my tax dollars are picking up part of the tab. Prayer is presumably a good thing. Just don’t ask me to pay for it.

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16 Responses

Thank you for posting it, being an Israeli who fully supports my country’s continued struggle to defend itself against its external enemies, I also fully recognize and criticize its collectivist policies such as enormous subsidies to non-productive religious population, military draft (legalized slavery imo), heavy taxation of income and VAT, and a long list of laws and regulations that strangle its economy. Much should and could be done to make Israel a better country, regardless of its continued problems with neighbors (though most people get the impression that Israel is all about the conflict with Palestinians).

Reblogged this on AntiTerrorAtheist and commented:
Israel should be de-funded… dis-armed and sanctioned. In addition all Congressional Reps and Senators who take money from AIPAC should be complicit in Israels war crimes. Netenyahu should be arrested , tried for ordering the deaths of civilians. Obama should be impeached for his complicity in war crimes as well.

Israel is a stabilizing democratic force in that area of the cesspool. Should support a people with brains. Innovative in medicine and research engineering. Tired of seeing countries and people crapping on Israel and Jews in general.
A Presbyterian Protestant, Thank you very much.

Alex Zehnbacht, instead of attacking and condemning @AntiTerrorJewAtheist, it would make more sense if Israel recognized and accepted the nation of Palestine. How many more hated Semites will be slaughtered by Israel until Germany condemns this Holocaust?

on a personal level… I absolutely support Israel… but I do not believe that the American taxpayer should be responsible for an open ended commitment to fund Israel’s defense… Israel is a relatively wealthy nation … on a par with many in the European Union… it makes no sense for America to borrow money from china… in order to provide for Israel’s defense… or to subsidize the defense of any other wealthy nation for that matter…

The way i see it, “you” (Americans) cajoled Israel into giving up the Sinai, so you owe Israel compensation in perpetuity.
Frankly, if i were Israel (if one can be a country) i would not have given up the Sinai when Carter asked me to do so.
That was a long time ago, of course, so i am not sure about the facts of the case.

PS: my comment above does not mean that Israel would not benefit from cuts in non defense spending: what country wouldn’t?
Note however that Israel has risen quite a bit in the EFW rankings in recent years.
I also note that you cannot just cut welfare and transfer the money to defense: when you cut welfare, you also have to cut taxes, so people can save for rainy days, retirement, health insurance, education for their children, etc.

[…] that turned out to be a misguided Hamas rocket. I wonder if the Jew-haters would feel better if Israel was terrible at protecting and there were thousands of dead Jewish children?,,,,Every single agreed to cease-fire agreement […]

You are right that Israel has the right to protect itself. It seems the rest of the world is mad that they are so good at doing so. Mike Huckabee said in his show on 8-2-14:

“You bet it is tragic that many civilians in Gaza have died, but when Palestinians pack their population around their military hardware and weaponry and then they fail to heed the leaflets, radio transmissions, dud warning bombs, phone calls and text messages, the results will be tragic. One MSNBC reporter blamed Israel for an attack on a school that turned out to be a misguided Hamas rocket. I wonder if the Jew-haters would feel better if Israel was terrible at protecting and there were thousands of dead Jewish children?,,,,Every single agreed to cease-fire agreement pushed for by President Obama has resulted in Hamas violating it by firing more rockets right into civilian targets in Israel.”

[…] that turned out to be a misguided Hamas rocket. I wonder if the Jew-haters would feel better if Israel was terrible at protecting and there were thousands of dead Jewish children?,,,,Every single agreed to cease-fire agreement […]

[…] text messages, the results will be tragic…. I wonder if the Jew-haters would feel better if Israel was terrible at protecting and there were thousands of dead Jewish children?,,,,Every single agreed to cease-fire agreement […]